The Diplomat in Spain

Melilla’s border crossing.
 
The Diplomat. 15/08/2018
 
The Government of Melilla approved yesterday, in an Extraordinary Council, an institutional declaration in which it denounces the unilateral decision of Morocco to close the commercial customs with the autonomous city.
 
The Spanish Executive has not yet ruled on this matter and the People’s Party (PP) announced that it will request the appearance of the Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell in Congress to explain what happened. PP’s MP for Melilla, Carmen Dueñas, described the decision as a «diplomatic slap to Spain» by Moroccan Government.
 
As reported by El Confidencial, on August 1, the Moroccan authorities decreed the closing of the commercial customs of the international border post of Beni Ensar, unilaterally. The declaration of the Government of Melilla denounces that the decision was only notified a few days before and stresses that the closure prevents the customs clearance of commercial shipments, normally in freight containers, restricting the transit of the same to those disembarked directly in the port of Nador.
 
It also notes that the first and immediate effect has been the blockade of several vehicles and their containers, which have been «several days held in an absolutely arbitrary manner by the Moroccan authorities.»
 
The institutional declaration recalls that «thousands of Moroccan citizens cross the border daily (more than 20,000) to carry out commercial activities in Melilla and there are more than 14,000 Moroccan immigrants residing in the city, in addition to the thousand unaccompanied minors supervised by the administration local».
 
For the Government of the autonomous city, the measure «supposes a breach of the letter and the spirit of the various collaboration agreements signed between the kingdoms of Spain and Morocco, above all openly contrary to the Treaty of Friendship, Neighborhood and Cooperation of the year 1991».